


Complication(s) in fate(s)

by zlilyanne



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Soulmates, it's ok, just a little bit, no body who isn't already dead dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-05 23:03:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12804306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zlilyanne/pseuds/zlilyanne
Summary: When you bounce from universe to universe fate might get a bit mixed up. Soulmates aren't a thing in every cycle, but they are in cycle 99 and that's what's important. Only poor Taako's soulmate is already dead! Or already death~





	Complication(s) in fate(s)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Love You Without Being Told](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8354488) by [ratherbeblue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratherbeblue/pseuds/ratherbeblue). 



Taako would say no one remembered the cycle where it had first happened… and by no one Taako meant that he and Lup didn’t remember so you should ask Capn’port or Lucretia. It was somewhere after the hampster civilization but before the beach world, early on in the voyage when weird thing still phased them. The details weren’t important, what was important was that early on they had found out that some planar system had.... Soulmates. The discovery was really less of a discovery and more freaking out about their new tattoos followed by the native population slowly and carefully explaining it to them like they were small children. In that first go round Taako and Lup, Davenport and Lucretia, Magnus and Merle, had all been paired together while poor Barry had to fend off a lovely, if somewhat slimy and blue native woman. The great scholar they spoke to on the subject (really more a kindergarten teacher) told they were likely platonic soulmates. The universe wasn’t sure what to do with them and had decided they were best suited to deal with each other.

 

“Noice~” Lup had said, high fiving her brother.

 

“Glad to know cheboy still baffles the powers that be.” Taako had offered back.

 

After that it became an increasing trend, more often than not planar systems had some way of identifying soulmates. Now Taako would like to say it was formulaic and predictable like cooking or magic, but instead soulmates were more like math. Complete nonsense and not worth learning in a year. Although One memorable year Magnus had spent the year with a golden handprint on his ass and paired with a completely unrepentant Taako. They all had turns being paired together sometimes even all of them were soulmates together. It was good fun most of the time, when they were together and could ignore the general implication. Sometimes though, sometimes it was heartbreaking and soul-wrenching.

 

The first time around when Barry had been matched to his beautiful slimestress-

 

(“OoooOOoooO! Barrold you _naughty_ boy~” the twins had teased mercilessly.)

 

\- it hadn’t been so bad. They had recovered the light and taken off with little regret and little thought to soulmates at all. The next time one of them had been paired outside the group it was a disaster. It was cycle twenty or so and it was basically a planet of giant nerds. Giant nerds that explored and recorded _everything_ , which made one of them apparently very compatible with Lucretia who started the year wary but amused.

 

“Oh good I’m glad you’re here,” The handsome humanoid man had said, “I’ve been waiting days for you to arrive so I could record all the necessary data.”

 

The man’s name was Karlic-Ou and he wasn’t kidding. He had spent the next three weeks making his best attempt at writing Lucretia’s biography. She had settled firmly on amusement by the end of the first week and seemed determined to write _his_ biography (but better). They had gotten lost in each other.  

She had ended the year desperate and heartbroken choosing to stay on the planet with her soulmate while the Hunger devoured it around them. The beach vacation had been a saving grace and restored her to better spirit, but they all could see it was a sorrow buried, not a sorrow let go. Dozens of cycles later they could sometimes find her paging through the unfinished story of his life.

 

They all took it as the warning it was. They didn’t get close if they could help it, but they couldn’t always help it. By the time the voyage was almost half over everyone except Lup and Taako had faced the soulmate sorrow, only spared because they were almost always paired...but even that changed. Cycle forty seven marked the biggest change between them since soulmates became a thing. Neither of them were heartbroken that year, in fact they were once again paired, but by the end of the year and the blossom of Lup and Barry’s love shifted something, and next cycle Lup and Barry were paired. They were in fact paired in every universe after that as well.

 

The cycles passed, and the novelty of soulmates faded until cycle 99 when they all realized that this was their last chance (and in some ways first) chance at a real soulmate. A particularly painful realization for Lucretia who had no mark, and Taako, whose mark was written in beautiful looping calligraphy...and washed out in the soft gray of death.

 

In the long and lonely years after Lucretia wiped away their past Taako would find the words as just one more way to be alone.

 

When Taako, Magnus, and Merle one again reunited (abet without them realizing the significance) it was a balm and a rub. They weren’t alone, but they weren’t all together either. Magnus’s own _“Woah! What’s the rush?!”_ was faded where it wrapped around his wrist, an open wound left exposed. Merle’s own mark was deep jet black and absolutely useless reading only “ _Nice to meet you.”_ . For his part Taako had locked everything genuine or vulnerable away so deeply it would take _several_ near death experiences for the other two to get in. It took months for them to grow close enough to help each other heal, and even then they became a tight knit circle suspicious of letting others in. Lucretia bore the brunt of their distrust which she found a bitter pill though she hid it much better than Angus, who tried constantly to join their group and was constantly rebuffed.

 

Lucretia worried their little group would never recover. Too much loss, loss that she had failed to protect them from. It seemed no matter who she threw at them they made only surface level connections. To her great exasperation their deepest relationships were with Killian, a roommate they called ‘Pringles’, and Leon the artificer.  

 

She had hoped that seeing Herly and Sloan’s love would soften them but instead it only made them sharper.

 

The trio hated Lucas almost on sight. Magnus felt his protective instinct flare at the way Lucas talked about the void fish and Taako found his manners grating. Merle had read the mood surprisingly well and decided then and there that Lucas was someone he hated.

 

“He’s a real douchebag. A absolute douche.” Merle had summed up after the confrontation and Magnus and Taako readily agreed.

 

Being sent after the little prick had seemed like a pain in the ass to all of them and they had only grown progressively angrier the deeper they had traveled into Lucas’s lab.

 

Everything seemed to be going to hell in a handbasket until a pink tourmaline crystal said: “Well this is hardly fair.”

 

Taako’s heart pulled the ultimate cliche and skipped a beat, a momentary mistake where his mind had registered the words to his soulmark, a moment of absolute soaring before common sense kicked in. Coincidence. It was a fucking awful coincidence that boiled Taako’s blood and made his next few attacks extra vicious. After the golem had lost it’s crystal balls and retreated Taako took a moment to center himself, resisting the urge to rub the back of his neck, where his soulmark ran down his spine.

 

“You ok buddy?” Magnus asked, looking worse for the wear himself.

 

“Not even close.” Taako answered, uncharacteristically honest.

 

The next fight is a blur. The robots are annoying but not nearly as difficult as their living selves had been. In the end they pull some cool stunts, sling some badass one liners and once again come out alive if slightly worse for wear. It was almost more traumatizing to get into Upsy the most fucked up thing they had ever had to do hands down.

 

It was all drama drama drama, talk talk talk, until the pink golem returned. Except it wasn’t a pink golem but rather the literal grim reaper, and despite the way he was making fun of them, something about the way the skeleton man looked at Taako made that same soaring feeling try and revive itself. Kravitz lists his nonsensical death totals for each of them but all the while his gaze is locked on Taako. Taako is a _total babe_ of course, so it’s only minimally weird not that Taako makes it less weird with his shameless flirting.

 

Taako firmly squashes the feeling as a giant ghost hand squashed Kravitz. There was no time for moping about handsome harbingers of death, he had bigger problems. Bigger problems in the form of a towering soul conglomeration and more junk heap robots than he could shake an umbrella at. Weirdly enough it’s Merle who saves the day, followed less weirdly by Magnus saving all their souls.

 

Before they leave Kravitz stops them once more.

“We had a deal-” Magnus starts, puffing up for moment before Kravitz interrupts.

 

“It’s not that.” He says quickly, “I just want to talk to Taako for a moment.”

 

Taako flips his braid (recently freed from his null suit for just this reason) over his shoulder dramatically, “Enthralled by my beautiful self hmmmmm,”

 

But Kravitz only smiles as he leads them a little way away from the others. “Something like that.”

 

Taako blinks, slightly off balanced before following.

 

Kravitz smiles at him and asks the last thing Taako had been expecting: “What’s your soulmark say?”

 

Taako almost flinched, _almost_. As it was he glared and had turned to stomp away when the reaper caught his arm.

 

“Humor me, just for a moment please.” He asked the same placid smile as before.

 

Taako let out a hiss of breath too tired to fight with this weird goth boy right now. “It says, _‘Well this is hardly fair.’_ “ he said in a rush.

 

Kravitz’s smile grows even as Taako angrily tries to yank his arm free, by then Magnus had noticed his discontent and started towards him.

 

“I’m glad, “ He started pulling one of the billowy black sleeves of his robe to reveal his own soul mark, “because I’d hate to have to do that ever again.”

 

There printed in Taako’s own sharp and spidery handwriting was Kravitz’s soulmark: _‘Hey thug, what’s your name, I’m about to tentacle your dick.’_

 

Taako gaped at him (not to worry it was still very attractive), “But my soulmate is dead!” he said indignantly.

 

“No love,” Kravitz said gently, “Your soulmate _is_ death.”

 

Kravitz released him just as Magnus reached them and watched grinning as the shocked wizard was shepherded away. He would go and visit soon, but it seemed like the best thing to do now was give Taako some space to think.

 

~

 

Taako definitely did think. He _thought a lot_. They arrived back at the base and went through the motions almost on autopilot. Meet the director, be mean to Angus, transmute Magnus, destroy the stone, get the reward, be mean to Leon, Fantasy Costco then sleep.

 

Taako woke up the next morning and felt… different. He had a soulmate. He had a living soulmate! Well no… that wasn’t actually true. He had a zombie soulmate? A soul soulmate? A dead but still smokin’ hot soulmate?  This was giving him a headache. The important part was that he had one after all, and one that couldn’t die, which meant no matter what happened next Taako would never be alone again. He’d never admit it, but that knowledge alone meant more to him than anything. He’d _never_ have to go through life alone again. Magnus and Merle were both amazing, and he was lucky to have them but this was different. This was fantastic! Taako sat up in bed and smiled.

 

Taako got up and dressed and smiled. Taako walked to breakfast and smiled. Taako saw Angus and smiled, and for the first time ever, Taako was nice to Angus, and Angus smiled. Taako thawed, and to Lucretia’s immense relief Magnus and Merle followed. Magnus became fast friends with Carey and Merle opened up to Lucretia herself.

 

For a little while, after Lucas’s lab and before Wonderland, Taako was happy. Sometimes, usually when Kravitz had snuck onto the moon just to spend a few hours mackin’ out, Taako though having a soulmate was actually pretty nice. He could definitely get used to it.

**Author's Note:**

> This work was inspired by the lovely ratherbeblue and her soulmate au "Love You Without Being Told" which made me wonder...how do soulmates work if you are moving through different universes? Hope you enjoyed the fic, let me know what you thought of the hijinks and lowjinks(???). If you are interested in ratherbeblue's fic it's this one: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8354488
> 
>  
> 
> As per usual of my oneshots this is written at 2am, is unbetaed, and posted without preview. If you see any typos PLEASE let me know so I can FIX them. I'm begging ya' do cheboy a solid and let me know if I done fucked up
> 
> If I didn't fuck up still do me, your best friend and sleepy author, the favor of telling me what your favorite bit was


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